Martin Lewis urges people with loans to claim back £1,000s with free new group
Martin Lewis’ MoneySavingExpert site has warned the public that Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) claims may be about to return, with many able to claim £1,000s back if a new case goes through. Writing in his newsletter, Lewis said if you had a loan, credit card, or car finance (among others), new legal action is pushing for further PPI payouts.
Explaining the current situation, MoneySavingExpert says: “A new ‘no win, no fee’ group legal claim – the biggest of its kind – has launched, aiming to recoup £18 BILLION in payment protection insurance premiums. It’s free to join and, if successful, could be worth £1,000s to claimants – including some who’ve already been paid back mis-sold PPI.”
However, MSE was keen to stress that compensation in not guaranteed and joining the 330,000+ people who’ve signed up isn’t 100% risk-free. PPI was wrongly sold to many people who were applying loans, credit cards, store cards, catalogue accounts, overdrafts, and car finance over several decades.
Approximately 65million such policies were purchased, primarily between 1990 and 2011. MSE says: “As a result, between 2011 and 2019 banks repaid customers more than £38 billion in compensation for mis-sold PPI.”
Since 2019, the door to complain about PPI and get compensation has effectively been “slammed shut”, as launching a formal legal claim is now the only way to get money back. This new group claim is focusing in on “high levels of secret PPI commission” known as ‘Plevin’.
MSE reports: “Legal firm Harcus Parker is attempting to launch a new group legal claim – on a no win, no fee basis – to recoup £18 billion in PPI premiums it believes are owed to six million people….More than 330,000 have signed up so far, and Harcus Parker hopes that strength in numbers will convince banks and credit card companies to come to a settlement.”
However, Lewis, founder of MSE, says that by joining the legal case, the risk is you may have to give the legal firm a cut of anything you eventually win. But this is not the law firm’s fault, as it was “the regulator and government that agreed to close PPI down”.
It is often hugely costly to build a personal case to claim back PPI, so Lewis advises “this may be your best bet” to get anything if you think you’re owed. If the case is successful, a new PPI claim era could begin.
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